International Day of Combating Violence Against Women: Violence Actually Often Tolerated

Stop violence!Violence against women and girls is the most common form of human rights violations. This is indicated by the data that every third woman in the world, as well as in our country has been beaten, forced to have a sexual intercourse or has experiences some form of abuse, while the perpetrator is usually a man from her immediate surroundings. The police register over 20,000 calls for protection in such cases annually, while welfare centers register over 9,000 victims of domestic violence. According to the incomplete/partial data of the Provincial Protector of Citizens - Ombudsman (PPCO), the police in the Autonomous Province of Vojvodina (APV) have intervened over 4,000 times in cases of domestic violence in which the victims were usually women and the perpetrators were their current or ex partners. Unfortunately, several tens of women have also lost their lives to domestic violence last year.

One of the reasons for this statistics is no activities regarding prevention of domestic and violence against women. The role of the media should be more prominent in it, and there is also a need to change the educational system in the way to provide for awareness-raising on unacceptability of violence. Another reason for this scope of violence is the loose penalty policy. Victims of violence, namely, are known to report the perpetrators to the police over and over, while the police only give them a warning. The court proceedings in these cases also last very long, the victims do not get any free legal aid, whereas in 70 percent of the cases the perpetrators get a probation penalty the implementation of which is not monitored at all, so it is not known whether they are actually violating it.

The International Day of Combating Violence Against Women, 25 November, is a chance to point to the problem of violence against women once again and efforts undertaken towards its elimination and provision of conditions for a safe life of all women and other people with experience of domestic violence. Violence against women being human rights violation, PPCO warns, primarily those in charge in the institutions, that, besides women, domestic violence affects elderly family members as well, but above all children, who are often both its witnesses and victims. The institutions have an obligation to undertake all legally provided measures to protect them. Unfortunately, violence is often tolerated in practices, contributing thus to victims feeling abandoned and helpless. Ignoring and tolerating it, as well as loose penalty policies concerning perpetrators of domestic and violence against women communicate a message of its legitimacy and acceptability.

PPCO reminds the public that the state and its authorities have a responsibility to eliminate violence against women by implementing various measures, as well as that protection of legally granted rights requires a coordinated and inter-sector approach. This the reason why PPCO has been facilitating the development and coordinating the work of the Life Without Violence Network for a decade now. The Network links institutions and services dealing with phenomenon in the APV, contributing thus to their capacity building for implementation of regulations in this filed.